Anyone study/ practice or otherwise try to exemplify stoic principles in their athiest/ agnostic lifestyle?
I do. It’s not so hard, but I look at it as more of a way to not let my emotions control my actions and my reason. To analyze myself and my actions and allow the emotion to wash over, not letting it influence my actions.
I’m not always successful, but it’s a process.
After reading more about stoicism in the last few years, I have discovered that it's not what I thought it was. There are some great ideas there.
I agree. I thought stoicism meant suffering in silence but the more reading I do I realize it's about moderation and equanimity. There's a lot to be said for it. In popular usage stoic often is a synonym for heroic so I don't identify myself as a stoic to others. But I do try to practice it.
I think it's accurate to say that I generally live by stoic principles to some extent. I think it's almost always more useful to keep your cool in most situations as compared to making decisions based solely on emotion. On the other hand, I've had people tell me that I can be cold and calculated to the point of coming off as 'robotic'. I'm not sure that that's a bad thing, but I also think it's useful to keep a balance between emotional expression and reasonable action.
I tend to think that all human motivations are fundamentally emotional (i.e.: a lot of action is motivated by survival instinct; this may get into semantics though)... so it seems to me that the advice of the ancient Greek stoics is simply to think more about long-term goals than about short-term whims.
Yes, everyday. I try to analyse and subsequently focus on what I can control in my life and not to worry about the rest. Additionally I always try to maintain my composure and push the limits of my temper so that it takes more and more before I lose my cool.
Can you control those ears?
@Condor5 Oh you mean on my filter lol unfortunately no haha.
@Wavefunction well, that's a fine set of flappers-not much larger than my own.